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The anomaly of plasmapause and ionospheric trough positions from DEMETER data

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Abstract

The paper addresses the study of the specific pattern of the subauroral ionosphere marked with the anomalous positions of the plasmapause, the equatorial boundary of the mid-latitude (main) ionospheric trough, and the light-ion trough under quiet solar and geophysical conditions near the magnetospheric shell with the McIlwain parameter L = 3. The anomaly was identified on the base of data of active experiments with the SURA heating facility on October 2, 2007, which were conducted as part of the SURA-International Space Station (SURA-ISS) program in the framework of the DEMETER satellite mission. Joint analysis of the orbital data from DEMETER and ISS, together with the results of the complex ground-based measurements, shows that the revealed effect, which is characteristic of the premidnight sector north of the Moscow-SURA satellite path, is not local. It is observed in a vast territory, extending from the west to the east along the same L-shell, from at least Sweden to Kamchatka. The conclusions suggested by the DEMETER data are supported by analysis of the meridional distributions of the F2-peak plasma frequencies provided by GPS radio probing of the ionosphere. Comparison of these results with the model latitudinal-longitudinal and meridional distributions of the F2-peak plasma density provided by the IRI 2007 and SMI (Russian standard model of the ionosphere) models shows that the model predictions are at odds with the empirical data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radiowave Propagation, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Troitsk, 142190, Russia

    Yu. Ya. Ruzhin & V. Kh. Depuev

  2. Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l’Environment et de l’Espace, Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (LPCE/CNRS), Orléans cedex 2, France

    M. Parrot

  3. Kotel’nikov Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics, Russian Academy of Sciences, pl. Vvedenskogo 1, Fryazino, Moscow region, 141120, Russia

    V. M. Smirnov

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  1. Yu. Ya. Ruzhin
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  2. M. Parrot
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  3. V. M. Smirnov
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  4. V. Kh. Depuev
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Correspondence to Yu. Ya. Ruzhin.

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Original Russian Text © Yu.Ya. Ruzhin, M. Parrot, V.M. Smirnov, V.Kh. Depuev, 2014, published in Geomagnetizm i Aeronomiya, 2014, Vol. 54, No. 6, pp. 780–788.

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Ruzhin, Y.Y., Parrot, M., Smirnov, V.M. et al. The anomaly of plasmapause and ionospheric trough positions from DEMETER data. Geomagn. Aeron. 54, 763–772 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016793214060176

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016793214060176

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